Agenda and minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the ast meeting were agrreed and signed.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Cllr Wyatt-Lowe, Cllr Timmis, Clr Riddick, Cllr Ransley.

Cllr England substituted for Cllr Bateman.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no public participation.

None.

Cllr Anderson asked the officers present if they had anything to add, specific to the s

J Doe gave the presentation for his service. He explained there were some updates/changes from the December meeting.

J Doe said that there are some changes around the financing of the contract for Hemel Market for some years the income has been around £60,000 per annum, the market contract expires today – 2 bids were made for the contract 1 of which was successful but the bidder pulled out, we were left with the prospect of not having a market, a meeting was called with Cllr Sutton.  A further 12 months contract has been agreed with the current provider on a profit share basis. We are currently looking for re purposing and making improvements that can be made to the market working with Hemel Hempstead Town Centre Business Improvement District and members to decide the type of product and it will go out to tender again later this year so that a new contract should be in place by next year.

J. Doe then went on to talk about staffing within Development Management.  Growth pressure of £30,000 per annum.

The final part of this presentation was information regarding CIL.

J. Doe then took questions from the members.

Cllr Birnie asked how the performance of the market operator would be monitored, and whether the expenses would be fixed.

C. Taylor said that we have monthly figures and takings from the market operator already and the agreement means that she or any representative from the Council are able to make a spot check as to how many stalls there are against his figures. Markets are feeling the impact of the downward turn in retail, but they would be discussing things that they could do to improve the market, such as evening opening etc., We have figures to use going forward for his expenses, which do not really change, it is more the number of stalls that varies.

Cllr Sutton added that there had been a number of meetings with this gentleman and it is important to have some sort of continuity with the market, we don’t want to see the town without one.  Hopefully over the next couple of months he said that we may have a Task and Finish Group to try and see what we actually want from the market because at the end of this year until February of 2020 it may well be that we try to do something different, we may try to do something independent so we should use this time to make sure that we have the best possible solution for the town.

Cllr England asked if only having 2 bidders for the contract had happened before, C. Taylor replied that it had – only 1 bidder 6 years ago, that was the person who is currently running the market. C. Taylor added that some councils actually pay markets to come to their area and we may need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Item 7 – WORK PROGRAMME

Cllr Marshall asked about the Work Plan – Cllr Anderson advised that there were a lot of guests attending the meeting in March in connection with the Air Quality item, and it would be first on the agenda.

Cllr Birnie said that he noticed car parking standards were on the Agenda for the March meeting, Cllr Anderson confirmed this and said that J Doe would be giving an interim report.

J Doe said it will be pre-cursor to cabinet meeting in March.

J Doe added that the SW Herts plan may have to be put back as the information may not be ready, Cllr Anderson agreed that this would be fine as it is not time critical.